Chicken feeder and exerciser.



W. R. LOGAN. CHICKEN FEEDER AND EXERCISER. APPLICATION FILED MAY19,1909.

Patented Mar. 12, 1912.

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UNITED sirA'rEs PATENT OFFICE.

wILLiAM 'RICHARD LOGAN, or LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR- 'OFoNE-HALF 'r'o ROBERT. HENRY/ROSS, or os ANGELES, CALIFORNIA;

"CHICKEN FEE ER AND EXERCISER.

T all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, XVILnIAM RICHARD I LOGAN, acitizen'of'the UnitedStates, re-

siding. at Los 'Angeles, in the] county of Los Angeles and State ofCalifornia, have invented a new and useful Chicken Feeder and Exerciser,of which the following is a specification.

This illifntiOIllEliLtQStU means for keeping confined fowls ingood-condition.

It is well known that laying hens should take'suflicient exercise tokeep them from I becoming too fat;' otherwise, the laying feedingdevice, thefood discharged will'be in front'of and in convenientposition for the fowl to quickly reach when jumping from'i s perch.

. The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention in the best form Iat'presentcontemplate embodying the same.

Figure 1 IS a perspective view of the apparatus as it appears n use.Fig. 2 1s frag- .mental detail in section along the axis of the valve.Line 02 Fig. 1, indicatesthe line .of section.

from 'line m Fig. .2; Fig. 4 illustrates the valve of theinvention asapplied for double action. 4

The apparatus comprises afeed receptacle in the form of ahopper 1, thebottom or base ofwhich may be formed of a cross-bar 2 supportedby legs 3and forming the frame of. the apparatus, The bottom-or base 2 of thehopper is provided with a valve-way 1 into the top of whieha downwardlyexpandedoutlet-port 5 opens from the hopper andfrom the bottom of whichvalve-way a downwardly expanded discharge-port 6 in staggered relationwith the outlet-port is arranged to discharge from the valve-way.

The-valve 7 may be rovided with a down- -wardly expanded c amber 8extending Specification of Letters Patent.

Fig. 3 is -a planof the valveacross the valve from top to bottom andarranged to register'with the outlet-port 5 at one position of the valveand with the discharge-port 6 at'another position of the valve. Saidvalve is operable by a bellcranklever 9, the fulcrum member 10 of whichmay be a shaft journaled at 11, 12 in two of thelegs 3 of the frame,which legs serve as means to hold the fulcrum member or shaft elevated.

One arm 13 of the bellcrank lever is operativel connected with the valvein some suitable way.- as by a vertical mortise 14 through the valveoutside of the base 2, through which mortise the upright arm 13 of thebell-crank extends. The other arm 15 of the bell-crank is practicallyhorizontal and extends away from the frame at a distance from the groundso that it offers the fowl a suitable perch onto which it may hop fromthe ground. On'the opposite side of the bell-crank fulcrum there extendsan arm 16 having thereon a weight 17 of sufficient gravity to normallyhold the fulcrum member in one position to hold the valve in positionwith its valve-chamber in register with the outlet-port when no fowl ison the perch. so that feed contained in the hopper may fall through theoutlet-port fill the chamber. v

Stops 18 and 19 are arranged on the valve,

. the one to stop the valve with the chamber in register with theoutlet-port when the perch is unoccupied and the valve is shiftedPatented Mar. 12,1912. 1 application filedflay 19,1909. Serial No.497,122. 7

by the-weighted lever, and the other stop 19 being arranged to hold thevalve with the chamber Sin register with the dischargeport when theperch is depressed by the weight of afowl thereon, or by any other It isthus seen that whenever the parts are free the valve is held by means ofgravity in position to charge the valvechamber, and whenever theperch-arm 14.-

of the belt-crank is depressed-thus lifting the weight,the chamberpreviously charged a with feed from the'hopper will be brought intoregister with the discharge-port so that the feed will fall by gravityto the ground.

The valve may be provided with either one or two chambers. as S and 8 inFig. 4; The chambers may be arranged to-rcgister with theoutlet portwhen the perch :is: depressed s o that'when' the weighted arm re turnsthe ffvali eit'd-normal position with its pressed.

chamber 8 register with the outlet-port, the chamber 8 will be stoppedoutside ofthe base, so that the feedcarried by. the

chamber 8 will be discharged when the weighted lever is depressed andthe perch is elevated.

The valve-shifting weight 17 is of such gravity only as maybe necessaryto normally return the valve to position with the chambers in r'egisterwith the outlet-port; and in order that the weight may be as light aspossible and-yet will invariably returnthe valvethe mortiseor seat forthe upright arm of the bell-crank le've'r is larger than such for, thusto a 0rd some lost motion, so that when the fowl-jumps onto theperch:the upright arm will be made to operate upon the valve by a quickblow, thus to start the valve and-when the fowl jumps from the perch theweight will'operate thearm to strike a blow on the valve to startit'toward its normal closed-position. V In practice, it isusually onlynecessary to train one fowlin an inclosure, to operate the apparatus.-Such training may be accomplished by placing apparently inreach fromtheporch, decoy-food,not shown, that will be attractive to the fowl,thus'causthe-decoy-food, This willcause the perch to descend under thefowls weight, and thereby will operate the valve to discharge throughthe discharge-port the charge of feed contained in the chamber'8. Thefowl, espying' the feed thus deposited on the ground,and being unable toreach the decoy-food that appeared to have been in reach from the perchbefore it was de pressed, will hop to the ground and pick up thefeedthus deposited. When this feed has the receptacle through-the medium ofthe frame that supports the receptacle, so that the apparatus-may bemoved from place to place and from inclosure to inclosure as required ingiving proper. attention and change of location to the fowls.

The apparatus is desirably constructed with but one chamber in thevalve, so that feed is discharged only when the perch s de arm; where itasses through the 'seatthere-l ing the fowl to jump ontothe porch to getprovided with a perch being fulcrumed to The operation in cases wheretwo chamhers are provided for the valvbis apparent. That is to say, whenthe fowl reaches the perch the discharge from the first chamber 8 occursas before described, and at the same time a charge of feed will enterthe second chamber so that when the fowl hops from the perch to get thefeed thus discharged, an additional charge of feed willbe delivered to.the ground- This arrangement ma be employed where a numberof small chicens are to be'fed, as the feed discharged from one chamber might be allpicked up before the fowl that. operates the perch could reach the feeddischarged from the first opening. Ordinarily, however, only one chamberwill 'be provided in the valve, and it is possible to close the secondchamber 8' by a stopper not shown, whenever it is requ'red to change thedouble-chambered valve bered valve. In any instance it'is advisable "toflare the ports and the chamber downwardly asclearly shown in Fig. 2, sothat the food willalways be dischargedwithout sticking. The top of thehopper may be provided with a cover as shown at 20.-

In actual practice, when one fowl in the yard has learned to operate theapparatus, the other fowls follow the example thus-set, and each fowlmay thus operate the apparatus and get its own feed, and the fowls are,thus given requisite exercise.

It is understood that the yard will be provided with such a humber ofapparatuses 'as may be advisable to accomplish the required feeding, andthat the form and proportions may be varied within the judgment of theconstructor; and also that means other than the weightedlever'for'returning the valve 'may be employed without departing fromthe spirit of the invention.

I claim v l. A- chicken feeder comprising a recap -tacle having anoutlet in its bottom, a valve to open and close .the outlettointermittently discharge feed from the'receptacle, a fulcrum memberbelow the level of the valve, means to hold the fulcrum memberelevaled', an arm extending from the fulcrum member to operate thevalve, means to'normally hold. the fulcrum member in one position,.andaperch fixed to and projecting away from the fulcrum member and thereceptacletoopcrate the fulcrum member and the arm and being horizontalwhen the valve closed;

'2. A receptacle, legs on the base of the receptacle a fulcrum membermounted on the legs, a valve to intermittently discharge feed-from thereceptacle, an arm extending from the fulcrum to operate the valve,means to normally hold the fulcrum mem: her in one' osition, and a perchprojecting from the lcrum memberto operate the arm, so that when theperch is occupied the o a 'single chamvalve will be held-in oneposition, and when 1 I it is unoccupied. the valve will be moved intoanother position for the purpose of discharging feed from thereceptacle,

3. The combination With a receptacle, of a base provided with avalve-Way, an out let-port being provided between the recep tacle andthe valve-Way and a dischargeport being provided from the'valve Way,

said outlet-port and discharge-port being in staggered relation witheach other, a valve in said valve-way provided With a chamber, toregister alternately with the outlet-port and the discharge-port tocarry feed from the outlet-port to the discharge-port, said valve beingalso provided with a mortise, a bell,

crank 'lever, one of the arms of Which is arranged in and is smallerthan the mortise, and the other arm of Which extends to form a.- perch;means to operate the bell-crank leset my hand at Los Angeles,California, this 11th day of May, 1909;

M. RICHARD LOGAN. In presence of James R. ToWNsENn,

M, BEULAH TOWNSEND.

